Summer Arrives With a Length of Lights
by Jack E. Peace
Summary: "Looks like there are some kids your own age here." Gwen Posen observes with half-hearted enthusiasm. "That's nice." But neighborhood children hold very little interest for Aubrey. Moving is only painless when she doesn't have to leave any friends behind. Clearly her mother has yet to grasp this concept. (AU)


**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, then it's not mine. Title comes from the song "Summersong" by The Decemberists

**A/N: **So I am pretty much a horrible person. I promised to write this story for kdntjb for her birthday and her birthday was officially a week and a day ago. I have no excuses for my failure. I hope this story is kinda what you had in mind when you gave me the prompt but it's probably not so...I'll try harder next year! Anyway, happy belated birthday and enjoy!

**"Summer Arrives With a Length of Lights" **

"Looks like there are some kids your own age here." Gwen Posen observes with half-hearted enthusiasm. "That's nice."

"Great." Brad and Aubrey Posen mumble, unintentionally in unison, neither seeming moved by their mother's remark.

Aubrey watches these aforementioned children out the window as they drive by. Neighborhood children hold very little interest for her. Moving is only painless when she doesn't have to leave any friends behind. Clearly her mother has yet to grasp this concept.

The heat of the mid-summer day has yet to chase the kids inside. It seems as though all the neighborhood children, regardless of age, have grouped together in search of some way to fill the afternoon hours. Some of the younger kids are drawing with chalk or riding their bikes around the curve of the cul-de-sac while some boys that look to be about Brad's age are lackadaisically tossing a baseball back and forth. Aubrey spots a few girls that could be her age and one of the girls notices her looking and raises her hand in a greeting. Aubrey doesn't have time to reciprocate the gesture before the girl and the rest of the kids are out of sight.

The brand-new Posen home is four houses down from the cul-de-sac and Aubrey sees little difference between this house and the others they've lived in previously. She's seen a lot of houses in her ten years and none of them prove to be particularly noteworthy or constant. As far as she's concerned, one house is as good at the next.

The moving van is already parked in the driveway and the movers are standing around idly, waiting for Marc Posen to arrive and provide them with further instruction. Aubrey feels bad for the movers; they don't know how bossy her father can be.

As soon as he gets out of the car, Marc starts issuing orders and berating the moving crew for just standing around. Even though there's little else they could have done. Aubrey knows that the best thing to do in this situation is stay out of her father's way. She takes her backpack and gets out of the car, finding a nice shady spot under one of the dogwood trees in the front yard. She sits down and rummages through her bag until she finds the book that she's been reading since they left their old home in Colorado. Nancy Drew is about to solve the mystery of the Haunted Bridge and even though Aubrey is pretty sure she knows who's masterminding the band of jewel thieves, she wants to keep reading to ensure that she's right. Aubrey wishes that Nancy Drew was a real person because she has a few tips for the girl detective. They would make a great team, Aubrey reasons; she could help Nancy notice all the logical clues right in front of her and Nancy could help Aubrey figure out how to make friends and become a desirable daughter. After all, Nancy gets along great with her father. It's a win-win.

"Hey, I know those books." Aubrey lifts her eyes off the page and finds herself looking up at the girl from the cul-de-sac. "I've read almost all of them except like fifteen 'cause I don't have them yet and my mom won't take me to the store and she says it's too far to ride my bike but I don't think it's that far. My favorite is when she goes to the ranch and has to solve the mystery of the ghost horse because I love horses and I went to a farm once too. What's yours?"

Aubrey is pretty sure that she's never heard someone utter so many words at once before, especially not to her. "Uh…" Aubrey doesn't know why she can't remember anything about Nancy Drew at the moment. "That one I guess." She instantly regrets this answer because her real favorite is _The Mystery of the Clock Tower_. She actually hates the one with the ghost horse because Nancy Drew spent too much time trying to get a guy to like her and not enough time trying to solve the mystery. Aubrey never would have let that happen.

The girl just smiles and nods. "That one's the best." She says decisively, unaware of Aubrey's inner thoughts on the subject. "So I think it's really exciting that you're moving in. The people who lived there first were really mean and they had a dog that bit my older sister once but she was teasing him so my mom said it was her fault so she got in trouble and not the dog. Do you have a dog?"

Aubrey figures the only time that this girl ever stops to take a breath is when she actually expects an answer. Aubrey just shakes her head and the girl shrugs. "Me neither. But I have a cat named Winchester and he's so fat my mom put him on a diet but when she goes to work, I make him scrambled eggs because those are his favorite."

"That's probably why he's fat." Aubrey interjects. "Eggs are high in cholesterol."

The girl shrugs. "I think he'll be okay." She assures Aubrey. "Anyway. Why aren't you unpacking?"

Aubrey shrugs as well. "I will later, once my dad figures out where he wants everything to go. He'll get mad if we get in the way. We move a lot, so it's a good idea just to find something else to go."

The girl sits down in the grass beside Aubrey and starts pulling up blades of grass and twisting them around her fingers. "Why do you move so much?"

"My dad's in the military." Aubrey replies.

"Oh, my uncle is in the army too." The girl jumps in excitedly.

"My dad is in the Marines." Aubrey correctly quickly. "There's a difference. Trust me." Marc never fails to correct people when they fail to make the distinction.

"Oh. Okay." The girl brushes the grass off her palms. "My name is Chloe, by the way. And no, you can't call me a Weasley even though the kids at school do because they think it's funny but it's not funny."

Aubrey quickly shakes her head. "No, I won't." She assures this strange and friendly new girl. Chloe looks at her expectantly and she quickly adds, "I'm Aubrey Posen." Usually the teachers are the only ones who care about her name.

Chloe smiles at her. "Do you want to play until you have to unpack?"

"Play?" Aubrey looks at her doubtfully.

"Yeah. We could ride bikes or we can pretend to be like Nancy Drew!" Chloe's face brightens at the idea. "We can solve mysteries!"

Aubrey's still not entirely sure how this whole thing is going to work out. "What kind of mysteries?"

Chloe shrugs. "We'll make some up." She gets to her feet.

"But then how will we know if we've solved them?" Aubrey still can't quite wrap her head around this idea. Nancy Drew never makes up her own mysteries and they always come to a tidy, if somewhat obvious, conclusion.

The only response Chloe has to offer is a shrug. "We get bored and want to do something else, I guess." She gestures for Aubrey to stand up, a slightly impatient look on her face. "Come on."

Aubrey hops to her feet and grabs her bag, looking at Chloe for further instruction. Chloe starts walking across the yard and beckons for Aubrey to follow her. "We can go to my house and get supplies." She explains.

"Oh, I should probably tell my father…" Aubrey hesitates and glances back toward the house. There's an overturned cardboard box on the driveway and her father is in the middle of yelling at one of the movers. "I'll tell him later." Aubrey says quickly and hurries to catch up with Chloe.

Chloe lives in the house that sits right in the curve of the cul-de-sac and most of the kids that Aubrey saw before are still gathered around. One of the girls runs over to get Chloe's attention. "Hi! Do you want to tie a jump-rope to your bike and take turns pulling each other in the wagon?" She girl questions, grinning and obviously enthused about this idea.

"No. I'm solving mysteries." Chloe just walks right past the younger girl. She gives Aubrey an exasperated look. "That's Beca, my neighbor. She's only seven." She says this like it explains everything.

They go around the back of the house and there's a huge grey cat sunning himself on the back step and Aubrey thinks that if there ever was a cat that needed to be on a diet, this is it. Chloe opens the back door and they step into the kitchen. An older girl with less vibrant hair and eyes is standing in the kitchen, spreading mustard onto a piece of bread. "Hey, Pipsqueak. Who's your friend?"

"This is Aubrey, she just moved in with her family. That's Justine, my sister. The one who was bit by the dog." Chloe smiles conspiratorially at Aubrey. "On the butt."

Justine swats at Chloe with a dishtowel. "On the thighs!" She corrects. "The back of my thighs, brat."

Chloe glares at her. "You're the brat." She snaps. "I hope you don't have any older sisters." She tells Aubrey, who just shakes her head. "Lucky." She says mournfully.

"I have an older brother, though." Aubrey says quickly, like that will somehow cheer Chloe up. "He's sixteen."

Justine looks at her with interest. "Really?"

Chloe just rolls her eyes. "We don't have time for you." She informs Justine. "We have mysteries to solve." She grabs Aubrey's hand and tugs her toward the stairs.

"You could solve the mystery of why you're so annoying." Justine calls after them with a smirk.

Chloe just slams her bedroom door closed by way of a response. She rolls her eyes at Aubrey. "Just ignore her. I do."

But Aubrey is too busy staring at Chloe's room to care about Justine. Chloe's bedroom is unlike any place that she's ever seen before; she's never been to anyone's house so her only point of comparison is the stark and coordinated room that her father insists she keeps. But Chloe's room is awash with color and…stuff. The desk and dresser and bookshelves don't match and the mismatched sheets on the bed are in a tangle. The bookshelf is nearly overflowing and the desk is in a similar state. There are more books on the floor, along with clothes and stuffed animals and papers. There are posters and pictures on the walls for bands and celebrities that Aubrey has heard of but knows very little about. Everywhere she looks, there's something to see and Aubrey has never seen a space so messy or so personal.

The only element of tidiness in the whole room is the bulletin board hanging on the wall above the desk. The pictures and drawings there are neatly arranged and tacked up to create a patchwork of images. Aubrey can't help but be drawn in by the images, wanting to see what she can glean from them about her new friend.

Chloe, who has been rummaging around on her messy desk for something, notices Aubrey's interest and makes a face. "Oh. Those drawings aren't really that good." She mutters self-consciously. "I was just messing around."

"You drew these?" Aubrey questions, her eyes going wide. "They're really good." Most of the drawings are of the fat cat Aubrey saw outside but there are a few of other animals or trees and there's one of a woman Aubrey assumes is Chloe's mother because of their similar features. The pictures are far beyond anything that Aubrey could draw and, she assumes, better than most ten-year-olds. Or most people period.

Chloe wrinkles her nose but Aubrey can tell that she's trying to hold back a smile. "Thanks." She mumbles. "I just like to draw sometimes." Aubrey opens her mouth to offer up further compliments but her words are cut off when Chloe lets out of a cheer of victory. "Here it is!" She holds up a spiral bound notebook. "Now we can take notes and write down the mysteries that we solve."

"I have a notebook in my backpack." Aubrey tells her. "I…didn't know that's what you were looking for. Sorry."

"Oh." Chloe just shrugs. "Oh well. Now we're extra prepared." She tucks the notebook under her arm and turns back toward her bedroom door. "Let's go find some mysteries to solve."

Solving mysteries with Chloe turns out to be nothing more than Chloe trying to spy on her neighbors and having Aubrey write down her notions and observations. Which Aubrey does dutifully and in her best handwriting, just in case Chloe needs to one day remember that Mrs. Jacobs is mean because she doesn't buy Girl Scout cookies or that Mr. Tucker has two Frisbees on his roof.

Eventually Chloe decides that it's too hot to keep sneaking around in people's backyards and they should go back to her house and make lemonade and watch the _Nancy Drew_ movie and even though Aubrey doesn't like the movie, she agrees because she's never been invited over to someone's house before. Except for that time her mother enrolled her in an etiquette class and they had tea at the house of one of the girls and Aubrey didn't have much to say. So hanging out with Chloe has been a lot more fun.

As Chloe and Aubrey walk down the sidewalk toward Chloe's house, Aubrey hears someone call her name and she looks over to see her brother jogging in her direction. Brad does not look very happy. "Where have you been?" Brad snaps when he catches up with them. "Dad is not happy right now."

Aubrey swallows. "Sorry." She mumbles before looking at Chloe. "I have to go now."

Chloe pouts. "What about the movie?"

"Maybe tomorrow." Aubrey gives her an apologetic smile. "I just have to get home now."

Chloe waves goodbye and Aubrey follows Brad back down the street toward their new house. Just as Brad said, her father is not happy that she disappeared without a word and left the rest of the family to do all the hard work. In an effort to appease her father, Aubrey helps her mother unpack the dishes and pots and pans without complaint and then moves on to unpack her own room. Which looks nothing at all like Chloe's. The only similarity is the bookshelf with all the _Nancy Drew_ books piled on the shelves. Otherwise, Aubrey thinks her room looks a little bit like an advertisement in a furniture magazine: nice to look at but clearly uninhabited.

Later that night, after a family dinner full of stilting conversation and a few rounds of chess with her father (he always wins but Aubrey feels like she's getting better), Aubrey goes into her room and takes out her journal. She stopped trying to actually keep a journal several years ago when she realized that she never had anything to write. She started making up her own stories and occupied herself at lunch or after school by brainstorming characters and stories. Tonight, Aubrey starts writing a story about two best friends who have to solve the mystery of a neighbor's missing cat. Aubrey feels confident that it's one of her best stories yet.

The following morning, Chloe shows up at Aubrey's doorstep and more or less demands that she come over and play. Not that Aubrey minds. This eventually becomes a regular routine and Aubrey is always ready and waiting for Chloe to arrive.

For the most part, they roam around the neighborhood, sometimes solving Chloe's made up mysteries and sometimes joining in with the rest of the kids, who all accept Aubrey by default. Brad seems to have found his niche as well, hanging around with the teenagers in the neighborhood, who seem to have little to do aside from sitting around and teasing the younger kids. Aubrey's not sure what is so fun about bugging eight-year-olds until they cry but far be it from her to tell people how to have fun.

One morning when Chloe shows up, she has her backpack with her and is wearing tennis shoes instead of sandals. "Come on, let's go." She says impatiently as soon as Aubrey opens the door.

"Where are we going" Aubrey questions, confused by Chloe's impatience and enthusiasm.

"Somewhere cool." Chloe assures her. "You'll like it. So hurry up!"

Aubrey laughs and grabs her shoes. "Okay, okay. Hold your horses." That's a phrase she picked up from Chloe. And while she doesn't know what it means and why Chloe likes to use it, she says it anyway because it always makes Chloe laugh.

They start walking down the sidewalk and Chloe launches into a story about how, last night, Winchester jumped onto the kitchen table in the middle of dinner and started eating the spaghetti right out of the pot. Which is how Chloe's mom found out that Chloe has been giving the cat people food for months. As it usually goes with Chloe, one story leads into another and Aubrey dutifully listens as she follows Chloe down the sidewalk and further past their houses than they usually go.

The houses in this part of the neighborhood look older and less uniform than the ones closer to Aubrey's house. Some of the yards are in desperate need of attention and some of the houses could use a little TLC as well. But a few of the yards look okay and one of the houses boasts a flowering garden. Aubrey thinks that these houses show a bit more character than the ones around her own.

Chloe abruptly stops talking and comes to a stop so fast that Aubrey gets a few steps ahead of her before she even realizes Chloe has stopped. Chloe grabs her arm tightly and jerks her backward.

"What's wrong?" Aubrey gives her friend a quizzical look.

Aubrey is pretty sure that she's never seen someone change moods so quickly. Chloe has gone from the bubbly and cheerful girl that she's known for the past few weeks to visibly cowed and pale-faced. And Aubrey has absolutely no idea what could have caused the change.

"Chloe, what-"

"Shh!" Chloe commands, panicked, and drags Aubrey backward so fast that Aubrey almost trips over her own feet.

Aubrey pulls her arm away. "What is wrong with you?" She snaps.

"That house." Chloe points to the two story home a few feet from where they're standing. It looks perfectly normal as far as Aubrey is concerned. Obviously uninhabited, or at least, she hopes that no one is living in a place with broken windows, peeling paint and a dilapidated porch. "It's haunted."

"What?" Aubrey can't keep the skepticism from her voice.

Chloe nods vehemently. "Yes. It's haunted. The family that lived there like fifty years ago died. Somebody kill them. And now it's haunted. If you don't cross the street and hold your breath when you walk by then the ghosts will follow you home and kill you in your sleep. And I wasn't paying attention and I didn't realize that were at the house and you didn't know and now the ghosts are going to get us."

The fact that Chloe looks so sincere is the only thing that keeps Aubrey from laughing in her face. If anyone else had told her that story, she would laugh for hours. But she manages to contain it for Chloe's sake.

"Do you really believe that?" Aubrey questions, looking back at the house. It's obvious that no one has made any effort to keep up the property for years. The yard is so overgrown that the grass and plants have taken over the porch and are growing through the wood. The house looks weather-worn and in need of a new foundation. A new everything really. It definitely fits the bill of a place you would expect to be haunted but Aubrey's just not buying it. She doesn't believe in scary stories.

"It's true!" Chloe insists. "Everybody knows that. If you get too close to the house, the ghosts will get you. One time a kid went inside and he never came out again."

Aubrey has a doubtful look on her face. "Really?"

Chloe nods so fast that Aubrey doesn't know how she manages not to give herself whiplash. "Yes. Justine told me. It's true."

"I don't believe in ghosts." Aubrey informs her frankly.

"Well, that doesn't mean that they're not real." Chloe tells her and Aubrey finds that she can't exactly argue with that logic. She glances toward the house, wondering if maybe there is something there after all. But she just sees a sad looking house that probably should have been torn down a long time ago.

Chloe just takes her hand and pulls her to the other side of the street and insists that Aubrey hold her breath as they pass by the house. Even though they've already walked in front of it, so Aubrey isn't sure what the point of this routine is now. But she just does it anyway and even manages not to roll her eyes when Chloe goes back to her normal, talkative self as soon as they pass by the house.

Aubrey starts to wonder where, exactly, Chloe is taking her. They have to cross through the back yard of one of the houses and woods flank the edge of the property go further back than Aubrey can see from where she stands now. Chloe somehow manages to pick a path out among the undergrowth and the carpet of pine-needles on the ground and Aubrey just follows her lead. She feels like Chloe's attire makes a lot more sense now and she kinda wishes that she had known they were going to be traipsing through the woods.

The trees have grown so close together that the branches and leaves above manage to block out most of the direct sunlight and the light that does filter through seems to fall perfectly across the trees and the bushes below, making the whole space seem somehow enchanted. Which Aubrey knows is ridiculous because she believes in magic as much as she believes in ghosts but the woods seem to have a strange, ethereal quality to them. Maybe it's because it's impossible to hear the sounds of the road and the neighborhood around them or maybe it's because Aubrey hasn't seen this much actual, wild nature since she left Colorado and it's a nice change from suburbia.

"I like to come here sometimes and read or draw." Chloe tells Aubrey as they continue to walk along. The ground starts slopping downward slightly and Chloe reaches for some of the branches to keep herself steady. Aubrey follows suit but still feels like her movements are far less practiced and coordinated than her friend's. "It's like my secret spot. I've never seen anyone else here and I never let the other kids come with me."

Aubrey can't help the smile that spreads across her face. "Really? Why did you want to show me?"

Chloe shrugs. "Because we're best friends. And I thought…" She just shrugs again. "I just wanted to."

For the first time in the albeit brief history of their friendship, Aubrey is the one who reaches for Chloe's hand. It's a simple gesture, one that Chloe has done so many times before without even thinking, but for Aubrey it's much more than that. It's the initiation of contact, the assurance that her little gesture of friendship won't be rejected.

"Thanks." Aubrey says softly and Chloe smiles at her. "I really like it here."

Chloe nods. "Yeah, me too." She gives Aubrey's hand a squeeze.

The ground finally stops slopping downward and levels out and they come to a place that has been reclaimed from nature and partially tamed. There's a large, half-rotted log that is flanked by a semi-circle of rocks large enough to sit comfortably on and in the middle of this circle is a rusted metal trashcan that bears the remains of fires and cigarette butts. Chloe might not have ever seen anyone here before, but the evidence that she's not the only person to visit this spot is pretty overwhelming. Aubrey can see trash and old beer bottles under the pine needles and undergrowth.

Chloe sits down on one of the rocks and sets her backpack down between her feet and unzips it. "I also brought a picnic for when it's lunchtime. Justine helped me make the sandwiches but I promise she didn't do anything weird to them because I was watching."

Aubrey smiles and sits down on the rock next to Chloe's. "Okay, that sounds good." She looks at Chloe expectantly. "What do you want to do?" She never has any problems with letting Chloe dictate the course of their time together; she's more than happy to follow her lead.

For the most part, they don't do much of anything at all. They just talk, their topics ranging from serious to completely absurd and Chloe tells Aubrey stories about the school she's going to be attending in the fall and Aubrey tells Chloe about the schools that she's been to in the past. It goes without saying, in Aubrey's opinion, that this new school will be the best by far because Chloe will be there. Chloe also shows Aubrey more of the drawings in her notebook and Aubrey surprises herself by telling Chloe about the story that she's been writing in her journal. Over the past few weeks, it's developed into what she considers to be a Nancy Drew worthy mystery and now she's pretty sure that she's going to add in the haunted house and the secret spot in the woods. They're good details and Aubrey knows that the details make the story.

Chloe gets enthusiastic about the story that Aubrey describes. "I want to read it! Can I read it?" She looks at Aubrey eagerly. "It sounds awesome!"

Aubrey feels her cheeks flush and she looks down at her hands in her lap, feeling bashful. She's never shared her writing with anyone before; in fact, no one in her family even knows that she writes at all. Her father would consider it a waste of time: making up stories when there are so many other, more relevant things that she can be doing. Which is exactly why she hasn't bothered to tell anyone until now.

"I…guess so." Aubrey shrugs. "It's not very good."

Chloe waves her hand dismissively. "Let me be the judge of that." She tells Aubrey smartly.

They spend all afternoon in Chloe's spot and Aubrey never knew that it was possible to be so happy just doing nothing much at all. They finally head back as afternoon slowly creeps toward evening and this time Chloe doesn't forget to make them cross the street when they get close to the haunted house. Again, Aubrey holds her breath even though she doesn't believe that will help keep the ghosts away, if there are any ghosts in the first place but she does it anyway because Chloe seems to think that it's important. And if it's important to Chloe, then it's important to Aubrey.

The following day, they go back to Chloe's spot in the woods and Aubrey brings her journal with her, even though she feels a hint of trepidation at the idea of sharing her words with Chloe. But it's not like she can just expect Chloe to drop the subject or convince her friend to do something else. Chloe reads through what she's written so far, pausing occasionally to read certain parts out loud to Aubrey or laugh at the lines that she finds particularly humorous. It's a weird experience for Aubrey to just sit there and watch someone reading something that she's written. It's a little bit nerve-wrecking and she finds herself worrying at her fingernails and trying to focus on something else.

"What happens next?!" Chloe questions, looking up at Aubrey with a hint of betrayal on her face when the story abruptly ends. Aubrey hasn't had the chance to write much over the past few nights and, at the moment, the story ends with the girl detectives finding what fictional Aubrey deems to be a very important clue. "What did they find?!"

Aubrey smiles at Chloe's enthusiasm, forgetting for a moment to be embarrassed by the fact that they're talking about something that she wrote. "Footprints."

"Whose?" Chloe leans forward, looking at Aubrey eagerly.

Aubrey shrugs. "You'll have to wait to find out." She says breezily.

Chloe's eyes go wide. "No! I can't wait! I want to know!"

So Aubrey caves and explains the rest of the story as she has it imagined so far. Chloe hangs on her every word and Aubrey feels a pleasant warmth bloom in her chest; her heart swells at the idea that she's actually commanding Chloe's attention and saying something that someone else finds interesting. It's a nice feeling.

"That's awesome." Chloe says decisively once Aubrey wraps up her story. She might have exaggerated a few places and thrown in some ideas off the top of her head but Chloe doesn't need to know that. "I can't wait to read the rest of it."

"Thanks." Aubrey says shyly.

"Seriously. You should be a famous writer. Like Nancy Drew." Chloe tells her.

"Well, Nancy Drew isn't actually-"

But Chloe is already talking over her. "I know what we should do! You should write the story and I'll draw the pictures to go with it and then we'll make it like a real book." Chloe beams at the idea, clapping her hands together. "It would be so fun and awesome. Let's do it!"

"Okay." Aubrey agrees without hesitation, just like she always does when Chloe suggests something. She can't bring herself to disagree with any of her friend's ideas, especially not when Chloe is this excited.

So for the next few days, that's what they do. They both bring their respective notebooks to Chloe's secret spot in the woods (though it has not escaped Aubrey's attention that Chloe is now calling it "our spot") and work on writing down and illustrating the story with the single-minded, zealous determination that only a child can express.

It's going pretty well if you ask Aubrey. Chloe's drawings outshine her words (not that Chloe would agree with that assessment) and Aubrey finds herself wondering if, when it's all finished, she might think about showing her father after all. He might be proud if he saw the amount of effort and work she had put into something.

Or…it's going well until Aubrey and Chloe run into the neighborhood's resident gang of teenagers on their way home one afternoon. Aubrey notices her brother hanging around with the other boys but he doesn't pay any attention to her as she starts walking past. Aubrey is more than happy to just ignore them and continue to go their separate ways. She's seen them tormenting some of the younger kids in the neighborhood and she doesn't want anything to do with bullies, even if her brother is apparently now a part of their group.

One of the boys grabs Chloe's backpack off her shoulder and holds it out of her reach when she whirls around and tries to snatch it back from him. "That's mine!" Chloe shouts, her face getting as red as her hair. "Give it back!"

This reaction only makes the boy and his friends laugh heartily and Aubrey realizes that Chloe has given them exactly what they wanted. She looks over at Brad but he pretends not to notice.

"Whoa, calm down there, Weasley." The boy, whose name is Isaac if Aubrey can remember correctly, just laughs at Chloe. "What's in here that's so important anyway?" He starts to unzip her backpack.

Chloe grabs one of the straps and yanks and Isaac lets go and the contents of the bag spill out onto the sidewalk. Isaac and all his friends start laughing like they've never seen something so funny and Aubrey kneels down to help Chloe start gathering her things. She picks up Chloe's sketchbook but before she can hand it over to her friend, one of the boys snatches it out of her hands and holds it up for his friends to see. "Ooh, _private_." He smirks at the word written several times in Chloe's messy handwriting across the cover. "I bet this is good."

"Give that back!" Chloe feels tears prick her eyes at the thought of these boys looking at her drawings. They're private and personal and she only wants to share them with the people that she wants to share them with.

The other boy hands over the notebook to Isaac and Aubrey tries to grab it away from him. "Don't be a jerk. Just give it back." She snaps. Once again, she looks over at Brad but he is staring down at his feet.

"It must be really important if you guys want it back so badly." Isaac teases. He fans the pages but doesn't stop to look at the contents. "Maybe I should keep it if it's so important." He taunts.

Aubrey crosses her arms over her chest. "It wouldn't be important to you." She retorts. She can see Chloe out of the corner of her eye; her head is bowed and her hands are clinched into fists and her eyes are wet with tears. "Just give it back. Please." She says the last part diplomatically, as though it will somehow help matters.

But it just makes Isaac and the rest of the guys laugh. "What'll you give me?" He questions.

"Nothing." Aubrey tells him frankly. "It's not yours, so you don't deserve anything in trade. You're just returning what is rightfully Chloe's."

Isaac scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Well that's no fun." He looks over at Chloe. "Tell you what. You want your diary back, you have do a dare."

Chloe tries to blink the tears out of her eyes and hopes that when she looks up that no one will notice that she's been trying not to cry. They're tears of embarrassment more than anything, which doesn't help matters because she's still embarrassed. "A dare?" She asks suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because I'm bored and I think it would be fun." Isaac says with a shrug. "But if you don't want your book back…"

"What kind of dare?" Chloe questions quickly before Isaac can decide to start flipping through her sketches after all.

Isaac thinks this question over for a minute and then grins. "You have to go into the Buckner place and stay there for twenty minutes. _And_ you have to bring something out to prove that you weren't just hiding in the backyard." He tells her. "And you have to go by yourself." He adds this last part when he sees Chloe's eyes slid over toward Aubrey.

Chloe's eyes get round as dinner plates and the tears prick her eyes once more. "But…but…it's haunted." She protests. "Everybody knows that! That's impossible! Kids go in there and they never come back out!"

Isaac just shrugs. "Go in or don't. But if you don't, I'll keep this." He waggles the notebook in front of her face, just out of Chloe's reach.

Aubrey looks over at her friend and then back to Isaac. "I'll do it." She tells him, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll go in there."

Now Brad looks at his sister. "Aubrey-"

But she ignores him. "I'll go into the house and I'll go by myself." Aubrey arches an eyebrow as she looks at Isaac. "Okay? But you have to promise to give Chloe back her sketchbook as soon as I get inside."

"He promises." Brad says, looking over at Isaac, giving the other boy a prompting look. "Right?"

Isaac rolls his eyes. "Yes, fine. I promise." He says. "Okay?" Aubrey nods. "So what are you waiting for?"

Aubrey glances over her shoulder, back in the direction that she knows the supposedly haunted house to be. She can barely see it from where she stands now and the setting sun doesn't make it any easier to pick out. "Okay." She says with a nod.

Aubrey starts walking back toward the house but Chloe grabs her arm quickly. "Aubrey, don't." She hisses, her eyes wide. "You can't go in there."

"It's fine." Aubrey assures her friend with a forced smile. "It's just a house."

Chloe starts to protest and one of the other boys laughs and rolls his eyes. "Dude, you're looking at this the wrong way. Let you friend go in there instead. It's a win-win for you." He laughs.

"Yeah, let _her_ get eaten by ghosts." Another boy chimes in and the group laughs.

Aubrey rolls her eyes. "There's no such thing as ghosts." She snaps. "Idiots." She mutters under her breath.

Chloe holds tightly onto her hand as they walk back down the sidewalk and toward the Buckner house. Aubrey knows that it's just the fact that the sun is setting and it's starting to get dark but the house does look a little creepier now than it normally does. But she knows it's just her imagination, there's nothing to be scared of. And it's only twenty minutes. She can do this.

Isaac takes out his phone and pulls up the timer. "Twenty minutes. Don't forget." He smirks.

Aubrey glares at him. "I won't." She lifts her chin and squares her shoulders. Chloe refuses to let go of her hand and Aubrey forces a smile onto her face. "I'll be right back. It's fine, Chloe, there's nothing to be afraid of." She assures her friend.

Chloe looks doubtful but she releases Aubrey's hand. "Thank you." She says softly and Aubrey just smiles and nods.

Aubrey swallows as she walks across the over grown yard. The grass and weeds tickle her hips as she walks, itching her arms but she can deal with that. In fact, as soon as she steps onto the porch she's wishing that she was still in the yard. The wood underneath her feet groans and feels less than stable and Aubrey wonders if the dare will be fulfilled even if she were to fall through the wood. The porch is littered with broken glass and discarded bottles and spray paint cans and the remnants of people who probably did this very same thing decades ago.

She reaches for the doorknob and looks over her shoulder at the group still gathered on the sidewalk. Chloe is wringing her hands anxiously and Brad gives her a thumb's up, which is probably the most encouraging gesture that Aubrey has ever seen him make. She returns the gesture and Chloe smiles the tiniest bit and Aubrey turns back toward the house and pushes the door open. The hinges protest the movement and the door wobbles precariously, like it's going to tumble down to the ground but it manages to stay attached to the frame and Aubrey steps over the threshold.

Inside the house, it looks even worse. Aubrey isn't sure how that's possible, but it's true. The wood is weathered and saggy in some places and there are holes in others, affording Aubrey a look down into the dark and dank basement under her feet. There are spider webs in the eaves and corners and stretched across the furniture and knickknacks that had been left behind. The fact that there's still furniture and memorabilia of the family that lived here before is by far the creepiest part about the whole house. Aubrey could definitely have done without a rotted couch and dusty pictures on the mantle. Maybe the house _is_ haunted, just not by ghosts.

Aubrey turns away from the living room and scans the rest of the house around her, letting her eyes adjust to the dimness. She's glad that she left the door open, otherwise it would be nearly impossible to see. The stairs are to her left and the kitchen is right in front of her and there's a door that she assumes leads to the basement and one to the garage. Everything is covered with dust and grime and bears the signs of decades worth of neglect and rodent infestations. Aubrey looks up and sees that there are holes and cracks in the ceiling above her head and more spider webs and even, yuck, a few spiders. She might not be afraid of ghosts but she can't say the same about spiders.

Well, she has twenty minutes to kill so she might as well find something interesting to take back to Isaac so that he'll be so impressed that he won't mess with Chloe again. Aubrey takes a step and the floor groans and the house seems to shift and breathe around her and that thought sends shivers down Aubrey's spine. And, of course, now that she's opened herself up to that particular line of thinking she can't shake it. She feels like there's someone watching her and she feels the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She knows it's ridiculous but that doesn't change the fact that now she's almost certain that someone is watching her, that she's not alone, there's something in this house after all and Aubrey feels her breath catch in her throat and she turns around back toward the door. But she stops herself before she can take a step. If she leaves then Chloe won't get her sketchpad back and she'll have failed her friend.

"Don't be stupid Aubrey." Aubrey says to herself, her voice sounding odd in the stifling silence in the room. It seems as though the house is waiting for something to happen, like there's a pause in the air and the eyes that she feels on her belong to people or ghosts who are waiting with bated breath for her to do something. Aubrey shakes her head and tries to push those thoughts away. "You're being stupid." She feels a little better, talking to herself. "There's nothing to be scared of."

The house groans again as though to refute her words and Aubrey swallows, her throat feeling dry and tight. Her heart is beating in her chest and she feels foolish for being scared but that doesn't change the fact that she _is_ scared and she's starting to wonder if maybe she was wrong about the ghosts after all.

"What would Nancy Drew do?" Aubrey whispers and feels herself perk up slightly. Nancy has been in plenty of places scarier than this and she still manages to keep her head and get the job done. Maybe if she just pretends that she's solving a mystery and looking for clues, twenty minutes will pass by in no time.

Aubrey starts toward the kitchen, wondering if they'll be something worth taking back to Isaac in there. She wants to find the most interesting item in the house so that Isaac will leave Chloe alone.

But there's nothing much in the kitchen. Just cobwebs and spider webs and dust and grime and a kitchen table on it's side and long dead flowers crumbling out of their vase that still sits on the counter. Everything is old and out of fashion and the sink and outside of the refrigerator are rusted, just like the knobs on the stove. Aubrey quickly decides that there's nothing to see here so she might as well head upstairs and get it over with. She turns around and lets out an ear-piercing shriek, which is quickly matched by the person that she finds herself face to face with. "Chloe!" Aubrey cries when she realizes who is standing in front of her. "What are you doing!"

Chloe is breathing heavily and presses her hand to her chest as she struggles to force her heartbeat back to normal. "You scared me." She pants.

"You scared _me_!" Aubrey retorts. "What are you doing in here? You're supposed to wait outside."

Chloe holds up her sketchpad for Aubrey to see. "I got this back from Isaac and then I had to come in here because I didn't you to be alone and I thought about the ghosts and…" She swallows, taking a breath. "I just didn't want you to have to be alone because it's technically my stupid dare and we should do it together."

Aubrey smiles and has to fight down the urge to hug her friend. "You didn't have to."

"I know." Chloe says with a little smile of her own and a shrug. "I…I wanted to."

Aubrey's smile gets so wide that it almost hurts her cheeks. "I'm…thanks." Chloe grins and nods. "It's really not so scary in here."

"Are you kidding?" Chloe asks incredulously. "It's way creepier in here than I thought! There are probably spiders everywhere! And…it's _so_ creepy!"

"A little creepy." Aubrey agrees with a little nod. "But it's better now." Now that she's not alone, now that she has Chloe there with her, it seems a little less frightening.

Until they hear the noise above them. It's not a particularly loud or threatening noise, but it's a noise nonetheless and Chloe grabs onto Aubrey and squeezes her so tightly that Aubrey worries about her bones crunching. "What was that?" Chloe whispers, tightening her grip on Aubrey.

"I…I don't know." Aubrey's voice sounds small to her own ears. "Nothing…"

But the sound comes again, like something thudding onto the ground and the floorboards overhead creak and it could be just the wind and it could be the old house settling and it could be an animal or it could be a ghost. Really, it all seems possible to Aubrey right now.

"The ghosts." Chloe moans, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. She's holding onto Aubrey so tightly that her knuckles have gone white.

"Not ghosts." Aubrey tries to sound reassuring but her voice is quivering and she doesn't sound so sure. Her heart is thudding in her chest. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

Chloe finally untangles herself from Aubrey. "Let's just go now, okay? I don't want to be here anymore." She whimpers.

Aubrey nods rapidly. "Yeah, let's go."

They turn and rush from the kitchen and even though the front door isn't all that far away, it feels like miles and miles. It feels like they'll never get there at all. Chloe is in such a rush to make it to the door that she doesn't pay attention to where she's putting her feet and steps right into one of the holes in the floor. She cries out as she looses her footing and the floor boards are so weak that her sudden weight knocks the rest of them lose and both the boards and Chloe fall to the basement below.

Aubrey is pretty sure that she's never been this scared in her life. The past twenty seconds have nothing on how she feels right now. "Chloe!" But there's no response. She hesitates for a minute before turning and running outside so fast that she's off the porch and through the yard before she even realizes it.

Aubrey grabs onto Brad's arm and yanks him toward the house. "Quick, hurry! You have to help Chloe! Please Brad!" She hasn't asked her brother for anything since she was six years old but this is far more important than whatever she had wanted then.

Brad follows Aubrey back into the house and one of the other boys goes running off toward the Beale household. Aubrey tries to explain what happened but her words just come out in a rush and Brad can barely piece it all together. Not that the details really matter; he's got the part that Chloe needs help and that's really the crucial information right now.

Aubrey finds the door to the basement and goes down the stairs without a second thought and Brad admires his sister's tenacity because it's pitch black and creepy and it smells but none of that seems to register to Aubrey as she goes into the cellar.

Chloe is laying on the floor and Brad can tell right away that her leg is broken and his stomach rolls at the thought of having to be the one to try to move her or take care of her. He really hopes that Matthew gets her parents and comes back before he has to figure out what to do.

Aubrey rushes over to Chloe's side and kneels down next to her friend. She takes Chloe's hand and Chloe's eyes flutter open and she fixes her friend with a dazed sort of smile. "The floor broke." She says simply and Aubrey nods. "Was it the ghosts?"

Aubrey shakes her head. "No, it was just a really old floor." She tells her friend.

Chloe sighs and nods. "Good." She mutters. "I think I hurt my leg."

"Yeah, don't move." Brad chimes in, coming to kneel down next to his sister. "Your parents will be here in a minute, so just…stay still."

Thankfully, Brad's words to Chloe prove to be true. Chloe's father soon shows up and hurries into the basement with the same single-minded focus that Aubrey showed earlier. Brad is relieved that he doesn't have to be the one who has to figure out how to move Chloe. James just picks up his daughter up like it's nothing and carries her up the stairs and out of the house with Aubrey and Brad following close behind.

James and Samantha take their daughter to the hospital and Aubrey paces the length of her bedroom over and over again, waiting to hear something about her friend. She's too focused on Chloe to even pay much attention to the lecture that she and Brad had received earlier from their father about going into the house and putting themselves into a dangerous and stupid situation. All she can think about is Chloe.

Finally Samantha calls to tell Aubrey that Chloe is fine, aside from some scrapes and bruises and a broken leg that will keep her in a cast for the rest of the summer and Chloe's sleeping now but she would love to see Aubrey in the morning. Aubrey doesn't think she can wait that long to see her friend but she really doesn't have much of a choice. It's a sleepless night for sure.

In the morning, Aubrey gets dressed and forces herself to sit through breakfast and then she goes back into her room and gets her backpack and throws several things into it before hurrying out of the house and toward Chloe's. It's the first time that she's ever gone to Chloe's house in the morning instead of the other way around.

Justine lets her in and Aubrey makes a beeline for Chloe's room, hoping that her friend isn't resting. Chloe is already awake, propped up on a pile of pillows with her leg resting on a pile of its own pillows. Chloe looks absolutely miserable but her expression brightens considerably when she sees Aubrey standing in the doorway. "I thought you were _never_ coming."

Aubrey climbs into bed beside Chloe, leaning against the headboard. "Sorry. I wanted to come last night but your mom said you were sleeping."

Chloe wrinkles her nose. "They gave me a shot and it made everything look funny." She tells Aubrey. "I wanted you to come last night but it made me go to sleep." She shrugs.

Aubrey looks at Chloe's cast and then back to Chloe herself. "Does it hurt?"

"Not right now." Chloe assures her. "But the doctor said I'm going to be in a cast for the rest of the summer." She says morosely. "That means I can't go to the pool or go with you to our spot or anything." She sighs and flops back against her pillows.

"That's okay." Aubrey assures her. "We'll just do stuff here instead." She gives Chloe a tentative smile, which the redhead returns.

"I'm really sorry you got hurt." Aubrey says softly after a minute of silence. "It's my fault."

Chloe shakes her head. "No, it's not." She assures her friend. "It's not your fault. I promise. It was an accident." She pauses, considering. "Actually, it's Isaac's fault because he was being a jerk and he took my stuff and made us go into that house."

Aubrey frowns, looking down at her hands. "I just wish I had-"

"It's okay, Aubrey." Chloe assures her, resting her hand on top of Aubrey's. "It wasn't your fault."

Aubrey pulls Chloe into an awkward half-hug that Chloe returns as best as she can. Aubrey feels better when she pulls away and sees the smile on Chloe's face.

"Well, even if you can't do any of the stuff that we've been doing," Aubrey says, deciding that a subject change might be in order, "there's still other fun stuff that we can do."

Chloe looks at her doubtfully. "Like what?" She's never been a fan of being stuck inside.

Aubrey reaches into her backpack and pulls out of one of the _Nancy Drew_ books that she brought with her. Chloe grins and takes the book from Aubrey. "I haven't read this one!"

"I know, I noticed it was missing off your shelf." Aubrey says. "I brought a couple of the other ones that I have that you haven't read. I figured we could read them together."

Chloe nods and hands the book back to Aubrey. "Okay, you can start."

Normally, Aubrey would protest having to read out loud. It's harder for her to focus on the story itself if she's worried about reading it for someone else as well. But it doesn't occur to her to complain. She just makes herself comfortable beside Chloe and opens to the first page. "'_Oh Nancy, I worry so about your doing that trick riding_,'" She begins.

Chloe smiles and snuggles closer to Aubrey, resting her head against Aubrey's shoulder. Aubrey grins and momentarily loses her place on the page. But she quickly finds her spot once more and their story continues.

**end. **


End file.
